This is Part 3 and the final part of the story of the lighthouse keepers’ disappearance.  Click here to start at the beginning of the story.  

The existence of these log entries has been disputed. I tried to find them and I couldn’t. I found the Lightkeepers’ Register documenting the employment of both Ducat and Marshall, but no logbook.

In 1900, there were no radio communications but the lighthouse on Eilean Mòr is visible in clear weather from the Isle of Lewis, 18 miles away.  A resident of the island, Roderick MacKenzie, was appointed as the observer to the light, which made him responsible for notifying the head office in Edinburgh in the event of any failure of the lighthouse to operate. I wasn’t able to find any information about Mr. MacKenzie ever raising an alert about the light being out, even after it was reported by the Archtor. It seems probable this was due to negligence. MacKenzie was a gamekeeper but he took on this extra responsibility as the observer in exchange for eight pounds a year.  It seems probable he forgot about it or just didn’t want to venture out in the storm to look for the light on the water.

The men’s death records from 1901 are the last we know of them. Ducat was married with four children, MacArthur was married with two children. Marshall was single. The record lists their cause of death as “Probably drowning” and notes the bodies were not recovered.

The final detail I learned about this story that I didn’t know before is that  another man, William Ross, belonged to the Flannan Isles Lighthouse. He had been away for some time, due to illness. Perhaps that’s why MacArthur was there.

What mysterious end did these lighthouse keepers meet?

Life on Eilean Mòr was difficult. This picture is attached to many posts I read about this story and is usually represented to be the missing lighthouse keepers. It isn’t though. The men in this picture are the lighthouse keepers of Bell Rock. However, the picture gives us a sense of what life was like in the Flannan Isles Lighthouse. The cramped, tight quarters create a claustrophobic feeling. The missing keepers led just such a hard and regimented life, isolated from the rest of the world.

I have a theory. There was (or is) a logbook even if I can’t find it. When I read what is said to have been written by Thomas Marshall, I immediately thought MacArthur, the Occasional, had murdered Ducat and Marshall in a fit of madness.

Maybe he was driven mad with terror by the high winds and the approaching storm combined with the isolation. MacArthur was not a sailor or a lighthouse keeper, but a tailor. He had not been on the island very long. He would have reacted differently to the conditions than Ducat and Marshall, who were used to the life there. Then again, he may have already been mad, prior to coming to Eilean Mòr. He was known to be physically violent and temperamental.

MacArthur may have deteriorated over the course of a few days. One evening when the others were asleep, he snapped. He roused Ducat and Marshall. They were groggy from sleep and probably disoriented. Look again at MacArthur: he was a much larger man than the other two and could have intimidated or forced them out of the lighthouse. In their haste, they left their beds unmade.

The keepers would have tried to reason with him but eventually put on their oilskins and went out as the Occasional demanded. Maybe MacArthur could not put on his oilskins and keep control over Ducat and Marshall at the same time. Or, in his state of mind, he may not have felt the discomfort of being exposed to the elements. Once they were out of the safety of the lighthouse in such a dangerous storm, they probably died much as Muirhead had speculated.

That’s just my theory though. What do you think happened?